The giant Mi-26: records and Chernobyl diary

Record work

Soviet "heavyweight" Mi-26. Despite a sufficiently long probation period and the procedure of public acceptance, the first serial Mi-26 had flaws.

The First helicopter, caught in the Center of combat employment and retraining of flight personnel (Torzhok) were lost because of the disaster on 26 January of 1983, which killed the entire crew of the chief of the Centre major-General Nicholas A. Anisimov. The reason was the destruction of the spar of one of the rotor blades during flight from Torzhok to Vydropuzhsk airfield. The tragedy forced the pilots to fly the first time the Mi-26, equipped with cable or chain connecting the machine to the ground. In the first half-hour helicopter fly on a leash was sometimes revealed to 7-9 Troubleshooting, requires immediate resolution. And at first not all the drawbacks have been removed in 100% drill machines. One of them was the docking place of the tail boom with the fuselage of the helicopter, characterized by insufficient strength, as reflected in the records of the Center of flight safety of the armed forces. In conditions of oblique blasting of the rotor tail boom in flight working on the creation of additional lift forces, it is typical profile. However, this requires a high strength of joint Assembly, of which the first machines were not.

Revealing the story of the engineer manual for Ukhta squad of Vladimir Mitin, who in 1990 was part of a group adaptation of the modernized civilian Mi-26T for the circumstances of Papua New Guinea:

"Prepared the helicopter and flew. Suddenly, in the vestibule of the pressurized cabin flew frightened to death techniques.— What is it, fire? I asked. Beam,— What beam?— See for yourself!I went Out into the empty cargo compartment, walked to the edge of the ramp. Down in the breaks in the clouds, he caught glimpses of mountains, covered with jungle. Grabbed the frame and looked at the beam. My mother was a woman! She spun like a fishtail! The vibration amplitude was very large. The beam went up and to the left with some torsional and, as if thinking, fall off or not, dive down twisted to the right in flight. The Mi-6 in I-beam such a stunt were she vibrated, rather, was shaking in time with the vibrations of the helicopter. Not entirely confident I got to the pressurized cabin.— See?— Saw. Design the latest. Everything is as it should be, I calmed him..."

Later, after analyzing the situation, Mitin suggested:

"Theoretically, it is possible (for example, reset heavy load with the suspension), when Mahe beams Lite up helicopter jerk changes the height and some moments falls down (and then expect trouble)".

Only towards the end of 1990, all released Mi-26 was spent strengthening the mounting problem of the beam. This was due to the large debriefing at the Rostov helicopter plant, which was organized to summarize the experience of operating giant. It is the remark Mitina this event has become one of the key:

"I-beam-what you need to do normal it works."

Thus, at first, work on the giant helicopter could be compared to the discharge records. However, it was common practice in those years to produce the crude product with further improvements during the entire life cycle of the machine.

After conducting the acceptance activities described , test pilots began to study the extraordinary possibilities of the Mi-26. 4 Feb 1982 test pilot A. P. Kholopov, S. V. Petrov, G. V. Alferov and G. R. Karapetyan crews lifted into the air 20, 15, 25 and 10 tons respectively, beating the 4-time high with the load. And in December 1982 a female crew Inna Kopets on the Mi-26 has broken nine world records of height and lifting capacity. Following the global achievements of Soviet rotorcraft giant had to wait until August 1988, when a car passed on the route Moscow – Voronezh – Kuibyshev – Moscow length of 2000 km with an average speed of 279 km/h. was Flown by a helicopter crew of test-pilots 1st class of Anatoly Razbegaeva, who tragically died 13 December 1989 during the tests of the Mi-26.

Chernobyl diary

In 1986 the remarkable abilities of the Mi-26 was involved in the liquidation of the Chernobyl disaster. Squadron of heavy transport helicopters from Torzhok was alerted on April 27 and sent to the Chernihiv airfield. And already on April 28, the first machines began to block the burning unit of a nuclear power plant. May 2 in the area of radiation injury came another completion of the Mi-26 from Novopolotsk. The cockpit of helicopters were equipped with improvised lead protection, and the Transporter room is equipped with tanks for discharge overboard special adhesive fluid to bind the radioactive dust on earth. Also with the Mi-26 dropped on the reactor, the sand and lead. In the first hours of the main tactics was the single departure of the helicopters, which were later replaced by "carousel" of multiple machines. Mi-26 Lieutenant Colonel N. A. Mezentseva was busy on a special mission – video bursting radiation of the reactor, that's why helicopters have long been in the air over the affected area.

With adhesive liquid, which heavy was poured into the surroundings of the working area, there was a nasty story. The fuselage of the Mi-26 was in many places literally plastered this "molasses" and the radioactive dust raised by the rotor at low altitude flight, firmly settled on the helicopter. This, of course,added the radiation dose to crews and staff. Mi-26 is expensive unit, and the leadership did much to rescue the pretty "fonyaschih" helicopters. At the factory in Rostov-on-don in an attempt to deactivate the technique of working wood blades scrub away dried up crust from the bottom of the fuselage. Needless to say that the employees worked without proper protective gear? The level of radiation in 1.8 times exceeds the threshold (this is after decontamination!), it was considered the norm, and the machine continued to serve. To bury the Mi-26 military made only a tenfold excess of safe level of radiation.

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Cemetery Mi-26 in Ukraine

Worked in the Chernobyl affected area of the Mi-26 and test pilots. So, G. R. Karapetyan and A. D. Grishchenko was employed to simulate installation on the mouth of the reactor domed cover with a mass of 15 tons. To deliver huge the cover was planned on the outer suspension of the helicopter, and the pilots made 30 preliminary tests on models that mimic the ruined reactor. After the full test cycle test pilots departed on vacation from the zone of destruction, and then gave the order to start the operation. Be in possession of the only combat pilots who are unable to take into account all factors of the flight and broke the cover. Most of the testers in the affected area worked Anatoly Demjanovich Grishchenko – directed the installation of 20-ton specifictrap on the surviving units and trained combat crews to the intricacies of working with a long external suspension. The cables standard length was not used as an extremely powerful rotor raised clouds of dust even with the adhesive treated with a solution of the earth. It ended for Anatoly Grishchenko tragically – he died in 1990 from leukemia. The title of Hero of Russia has posthumously awarded...

Grave of Anatoly Grishchenko

The Heroism of the helicopter pilots at Chernobyl was an event of not only national but global scale.

"American helicopter society awards the award to the pilots who participated in the initial helicopter operations to eliminate the accident of the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, in recognition of their demonstrated courage and composure".

This is the explanatory text of the awards of the American helicopter society the name of captain William j. Kossler, which was awarded may 6, 1991, colonels N. A. Mezentsev, E. I. Mescheryakov, Colonel S. V. Kuznetsov, A. A. Morzhukhina, V. A. Prasolova, N. Igor Sheverdin and major V. A. Kulikov from the Center of combat employment and retraining of flight personnel in Torzhok. Mi-26 became the great instruments in the fight against an invisible enemy.

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